Wednesday, May 2, 2018

'Free media' week killings - but don't forget crimes against Papuans

"Save Papuan Journalists" - a theme poster from last year's May 3 World Press Freedom Day event in Jakarta, Indonesia.
West Papuan media freedom issues tend to be "lost" in the standard press freedom reports on Indonesia.
Image: David Robie/Pacific Media Centre

MONDAY – just three days before today’s World Press Freedom Day – was the deadliest day for news media in Afghanistan
in 17 years. The killing of nine journalists and media workers among 26
people who died in dual suicide bomb attacks in Kabul was the worst day for the press since the fall of the Taliban.

Five other journalists were wounded and a 10th journalist was shot and killed in a separate attack outside the capital.

It was the also the most horrendous day for global media since the Ampatuan massacre on the southern Philippines
island of Mindanao on 23 November 2009. A shocking 32 journalists were
murdered that day, most of the total death toll of 58 in an ambush on a
pre-election cavalcade.

To date nobody has been successfully brought to justice. The scores
of private militia “owned” by the Ampatuan family alleged to have
carried out the killings have got away with their vile crime almost
scot-free.
However, some suspects have been detained and others are out on bail.

High-powered weapons
Twenty two high-powered weapons were handed in by the local mayor of an
Ampatuan clan bringing the number of 439 firearms either “recovered or
surrendered in Maguindanao and Sultan Kuarat in the past four months.

The Ampatuans handed over nine M79 grenade launchers, six Barret
rifles, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher, a mortar, an M16-A1 rifle, a
Garand rifle, one Uzi and one carbine.

“It’s supposed to be the trial of the century. Yet eight years later,
no convictions have been made in the Maguindanao massacre cases … the
worst case of election-related violence in the Philippines,” writes Rappler journalist Sofia Tomacruz.

Asia-Pacific has clearly become the most dangerous region for
journalists. More specifically, South Asia, according to a new
International Federation of Journalists report that is being launched
today.

The latest attacks underscore the global targeting of journalists and the impunity that most of their killers enjoy.

‘Justice is elusive’
“In most of the cases of killing of journalists in South Asia, justice is elusive, says the IFJ.

“The 33 journalist colleagues whom we lost this year add to a long
list of hundreds of slain journalists awaiting justice after being
killed for carrying out their professional duties. The struggle for
justice is a challenging process, and in many cases the process doesn’t
even begin.”

“Hostility towards the media, openly encouraged by political leaders,
and the efforts of authoritarian regimes to export their vision of
journalism pose a threat to democracies,” says the media freedom agency.

The line separating verbal violence from physical violence is dissolving, says RSF.

Assassination threat
In the Philippines (falling
six places to 133rd in the RSF World Press Freedom Index), President
Rodrigo Duterte “not only constantly insults reporters but has also
[has] warned them that they ‘are not exempted from assassination’."

In India (down two places to
138th), “hate speech targeting journalists is shared and amplified on
social networks, often by troll armies in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
pay”.

In both countries, says RSF, at least four journalists were gunned
down in cold blood in the space of a year – and a Filipino radio
journalist, Edmund Sestoso, of DyGB 91.7FM in Dumaguete City, died on Tuesday after being shot by motorcycle gunman on April 30.

A press freedom protest in the Philippines capital of Manila over the latest killing of a radio journalist.
Image: RS

Also in the Philippines, encouraged by the aggressively anti-media stance of their president, the Congress initiated a “good news only” clampdown on the media reporting about the lawmakers barely a week before Media Freedom Day.

Reporters in the House of Representatives have protested against the
new media accreditation rules that demand only positive coverage of the
Congress, the lawmakers and its officials.

A 19-page draft policy statement distributed by the accrediting
agency Press and Public Affairs Bureau (PPAB) says it seeks to ban
journalists who “besmirch the reputation” of Congress, its officials and
members.

Breaching a proposed six-point list of violations will mean
cancellation of a journalist’s press identity card and being barred from
covering Congress.

The biggest climbs were by Fiji (up 10 places to 57th), New Zealand (five places to 8th) -back into the top 10 globally – and Timor-Leste three places to 95th. Solomon Islands was unranked while Australia remained on 19th (mainly due to the concentrated media ownership in that country). Other Oceania nations were not cited.

This is especially surprising about Vanuatu, where the local newspaper Vanuatu Daily Post has been a leading example of press freedom and courageous journalism for a few years.

Although interest remains high about West Papua in the Pacific, the region is “lost” in the RSF ranking for Indonesia (which remains unchanged at 124th). President
Joko Widodo is accused of “breaking his campaign promises” with his
presidency marked by “serious media freedom violations, including
drastically restricting media access to the Papua and West Papua
provinces (the Indonesian half of the island of New Guinea), where
violence against local journalists continues to grow”.
In Fiji, where the “chill” factor is still strong, the big test will
come with the second post-coup election likely to be in September.

While acknowledging a modest freeing up of the media with the 2014
election, RSF says: “The media are nonetheless still restricted by the
draconian 2010 Media Industry Development Decree and the Media
Industry Development Authority (MIDA) that it created. Violating the
decree is punishable by up to two years in prison and the MIDA’s
independence is questionable.”

However, New Zealand should not be too smug about its return to
favour in the top 10 of world press freedom nations (due to the Commerce
Commission’s rejection of the proposed merger of Fairfax and NZME with
the threat to plurality).

RSF says there are still political pressures: “The media continue to
demand changes to the Official Information Act, which obstructs the work
of journalists by allowing government agencies a long time to respond
to information requests and even makes journalists pay several hundred
dollars for the information.”

While the threats to media freedom in Oceania remain fairly benign
compared with much of the rest of the world, vigilance is needed.

And there is a challenge to journalism schools in New Zealand and the
Pacific. They ought to put far more resources and teaching strategies
into addressing how to keep young journalists safe in an increasingly
hostile world for the media.

David Robie is convenor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project. This article was also written for Asia Pacific Report.

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